Hello!

As someone who worked on Wall Street, and started her career on the fixed income side of the business, I am glad to see a fellow traveler! I see so many equity analysts and number crunchers, but fixed income is much more complex and demanding.

I think the analyst positions are good and show your ability to understand the financial and other quantitative parts of the business school curriculum, and when you write your essays, you will need to incorporate cases where you have shown leadership and teamwork -- even in a micro sense. I also think that when you write about your experience, if you put it in a broader context, that will be helpful.


I like your international experience and you ecological interests. Your GPA looks fine,(and Madison is a particularly fine place!) but Berkeley has made it pretty clear on its own website that it is looking for 80th percentile in quant. Some say you need an 80% in quant and an 80% in verbal, but I'm not so sure. Columbia is fairly rigorous about the numbers as well, and they have a lot of students with financial markets experience going in, so your application will be looked at relative to the rest of the pool.

Happy to provide additional insight if you would like to email me.

With best regards,
Betsy Massar
CEO
Master Admissions
www.masteradmissions.com